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THE OUTLAND 169
I put my riches back in my backpack, and my fingers prickle painfully - it could have bled, but ... - the third little thing, memorable. A gift from Agnis. It just so happened that all my things are in one way or another connected with my girls. I remember, I remember how Spider laughed at me.Shaking out the steel-framed jewelry, I stared thoughtfully at it, remembering: racing against time and fatigue, trying to either save everyone or myself. What came of it?Nothing good.I screwed up again, there's no doubt about that. He vowed - no, no more, not a step into the terrible creation of his superiors. I don’t know what the NextNgine engine really was: either a surge of genius in an otherwise mediocre young man, or a self-consistent loop, when the inevitable stretches out its hand from the future, or the devil still exists, but he is not interested in souls, but here human suffering in itself... The fact remains that both projects on this engine cost my psyche too much."I would work
THE OUTLAND 170
So I distribute debts and go to surrender to engineers. And doctors. And to everyone who understands this matter. Otherwise, I will not see sleep as my own ears.I felt in my pockets—the holographic aquarium on the left, Bauer's gift on the right. If they don't let me into the PP, I'll have to use glasses. And, perhaps in the future, only them, until they fix me. I'm tired of these lucid dreams. Edik said that lucid dreams are a direct path to conscious death, which opens the way to choosing the next rebirth.Yes, I'm starting to rant. The modem squeaked, signaling the completion of the download.Direct connection. Refusal.So, okay. The situation is not entirely hopeless. You need to draw up a plan of action.Now I'm jumping into the "Distant Search", there I'm looking for Avdeyka in the closed world and, therefore, Shelly - his meadow aunt.Next is the weak point in the plan. I really need to talk to her. A difficult task for several reasons at once: Rob beat her, defeated her and a
THE OUTLAND 171
Time-time-time echoed like invisible arrows in my skull as I stared blindly at the spinning loading circle. It's hot in glasses, my forehead was sweating, and my eyes were very tired from a constantly directed light source in just a couple of hours of playing. In addition, the hardware installed inside the interface device left much to be desired: everything loaded extremely slowly, forcing you to stare at a still picture. What made the eyes even worse!However, it may be for the best that I did not go to Wirth through a direct connection. Chuyka invigorated better than coffee, making its way even through the intoxicating alcohol snare, and informed that one should remain on the alert. I will play and listen to what is happening. Strongly, of course, this will not help - when I hear the squeal of brakes, most likely it will be too late to run somewhere.However, it's better than nothing at all! In general, I would have driven off to the region if I didn’t know that even electric trans
THE OUTLAND 172
"Marshal?"I remembered the anecdote about the chauffeur-general, but the little piggy who jumped out into the frame in no way resembled the eyebrow-like cupboard-like grandfathers from the General Staff. A girl of about twenty-three, shaved bald, which did not spoil the narrow face with a heart with huge eyes and a sensual mouth. Only here is her look ... Definitely, she received the title not for her beautiful eyes.Marshal-Marshal... I clicked on the tooltip, and the stepper immediately spat out a certificate. Police rank level of our sheriffs. So, not from the warriors.“Hello, cadets,” A dry, almost lifeless voice hurt his ears.The girl carefully, slowly looked at each of us. We, in turn, stared at her - her clothes looked as if the chiseled figure of the marshal had been doused with some kind of liquid and extremely elastic material - we could not see any seams or fasteners. However, the costume didn’t show too much either, but there was still something to see.“I am from the w
THE OUTLAND 173
For some reason, my head switched to tactical mode, only instead of placing my people across the field and observing the most advantageous positions, chains of logical calculations went through there. I can go directly to Frisson with information about the actual methods and goals of the cultists, explain how it works, and why only I can be sent on this task - the girl from the destroyed world clearly understood something, looking through my memories along with everyone else, should have draw conclusions, must!Kuroi Kama do not use optical or electronic guidance systems, quite rightly fearing optoelectronic scanners, which are inevitable at secure facilities. Instead, they have some kind of stray that works on the principle of tracking a person's individual code, which does not change from protagonist to protagonist. This way you can keep track of players, and some people will not like it very much, but this is not about that. More importantly, they almost never miss. Standard hitman
THE OUTLAND 174
Agnis exhaled convulsively again, but said nothing.— In general, it all started with Haang as the very first. He went to the abyss, where he deposed the archangel. Now all the Filth is in his hands. They do not touch people yet, but they destroyed one cemetery. Guess which one.“The same thing, without the ankh!” I gasped. “So there is no longer any protection between humans and the Filth!”- Right. Khaang's troops catch all living things and turn them into Filth - they accumulate strength. As soon as they accumulate enough, they move on. We have no idea where, but it is clear now: Haang will not be the only corrupted god at the head of this army. Soon the rest will realize where the game is fatter, and against the seven demons, I'm afraid even I can't resist.- Good. What we can do?- Restore balance. Astrix shrugged. — Return the ankh to its homeland, restore the lich of the plundered cemetery. Even one lich can hold back the Filth indefinitely, and if he summons a bone dragon...-
THE OUTLAND 175
- What?! I barked. - What nonsense! Xolotl is alive, I personally...- Killed her? Astrix raised an eyebrow. “Finished off what little was left of her?”But you are all alive. You, Ware, other scumbags. What happened to Shelly?- She was already unstable at the time of digitization because of the child, you understand? One and a half consciousness, working out of tune. Technique then simply did not provide for such a situation ... And now, you yourself understand. Pregnancy is a vanishingly rare phenomenon these days.“But she gave birth in those two thousand years.- Both in real life and in virtual, yes. But in real life, the process of childbirth is simply the separation of one from the other without any sacrifice on the part of the psychostructure. In the virtual, everything turned out a little differently.And who did she give birth to? Gary?The spider chuckled.- Does not give you a dream of rest, I see. No, not Gary. Who cares. The main thing is that the rejection mechanism at
THE OUTLAND 176
The Christmas tree backed away, and I, sinfully squeezing past it in half, stared thoughtfully at my avatar. A savage Amri, a slave by birth, a pacifist by conviction - it was necessary to manage, in such and such a world, to get a lowered pain threshold! Laughter and sin, in general, are obviously cannon fodder, which usually does not survive even the first serious battle.But they survived. And they didn't even get scars. Unless, of course, do not count those inside. And, of course, a snowflake peeking out from under the undergarments. But this is not a scar, but rather a protective mark. Okay, good time to pull, it is already in short supply.- Hey, get up! I called.The spider said something about the reunion of soul and body. But damn, how to implement it? God somehow forgot to mention the technical details - either he really didn’t know, or for him such tricks are so in the order of things that they are not worth clarifying.No answer. Of course."Get up, motherfucker!" I shook